The Impact of Social Security Contributions on Savings: An Analysis of German Households by Category
Ulrich Blum, Marc Gaudry
Jahrbuch für Sozialwissenschaft,
No. 2,
1990
Abstract
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The German Stability Program: A Quantitative Assessment
Klaus Weyerstraß
Atlantic Economic Journal,
2002
Abstract
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The Financial System in South Korea: Intermediation In-Efficiency, Crisis and Reform
Ralf Müller
External Publications,
1998
Abstract
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The Export Orientation of East German Manufacturing Industry in the Process of Economic Transformation: Evidence from Company Panel Data
Udo Ludwig, Brigitte Loose
Economics of Transformation – Theory, Experiences and EU-Enlargemnet. INFER Annual Conference 2001,
2001
Abstract
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The Exchange Rate of the Rouble and its Impact on Stability and Growth in Russia
Hubert Gabrisch
Success and Failures of Transition – the Russian Agriculture between Fall and Resurrection,
2003
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The empirical relationship between longevity and physical stature may be obscured by unobserved genetic diversity in the optimal metabolic rate.
Marco Sunder
Medical Hypotheses 64 (6),
2005
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The Effect of a Reduction in Working Hours on Employment: Empirical Evidence for West-Germany
Christian Dreger, Olaf Fuchs, Jürgen Kolb
Journal of Economics (MVEA),
2001
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The economics of uniting Germany
Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch
The Cold War Legacy in Europe,
1992
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The Economic Geography of Offshoring.
Ulrich Blum
Offshoring Journal,
No. 1,
2007
Abstract
Offshoring is defined as the moving of entrepreneurial functions or business functions to other places, mostly third countries, or ordering the respective services from an independent company in a third country. Today, offshoring activities are mostly interesting if they relate to the service, especially those parts in which digital processes play an important role. Also activities with low transaction costs and advantages of locations are best suited for offshoring. But the question of what to outsource and what to keep in-house is also related to the limits of the firm and the limits of a legal system.
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The East German Cement Cartel: Cartel Efficiency and Policy after Economic Transformation
Ulrich Blum
Eastern Economic Review,
2007
Abstract
In 2003 the German Antitrust Commission (GAC) proved the existence of a cartel in the German cement industry. The German cement producers involved in the case were fined € 661 million for having established quotas to extract additional rents. One of the main centers of this cartel was East Germany, where the East German Cement Combine with its giant facilities had been sold, in the early 1990s, to four large producers by Treuhand in the process of privatizing the economy. Only in respect to in this market did all defendants concede having had a part in forming a cartel.
In this paper, we challenge the argument of excess revenue that the GAC puts forward for the East German market. We argue that legal evidence does not necessarily translate into economic evidence. We show that demand for cement is realized in geographical and, to a more limited extent, in product space. Thus, in the absence of cartels we would expect monopolistic competition to prevail. We argue that any transition in the market regime, from the cartel to the post cartel period, must be traceable in the individual firm’s demand function which differs from the clients’ demand function because of costs for spatial and product differentiation. Within the framework of an econometric model, we cannot identify any structural changes in demand. Most likely, imports from Poland and the Czech Republic were dumped into the East German market and some medium sized producers were responsible for the cartel never working.
Finally the paper shows how difficult it is to generate competition in certain industries even under the umbrella of a well-established market economy, i.e. that of West Germany, and that the openness of the economy, i.e. trans-border shipments, are decisive.
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